There were three additional COVID-related deaths reported in the Rio Grande Valley on Tuesday as hospitalizations continue to rapidly increase.
HIdalgo County reported two additional COVID-19 related deaths while Cameron County health officials reported one such death on Tuesday.
The deaths were of a McAllen man in his 20s, a Mission woman more than 70 years old, and a Harlingen man in his 60s.
In Hidalgo County, hospitalizations climbed again with 199 COVID hospitalizations, with 50 patients being treated in intensive care units.
But the rise in hospitalizations was not limited to Hidalgo County as hospitalizations throughout the entire Rio Grande Valley reached 328 on Monday, according to data from the Texas Department of State Health Services.
Compared to a week prior, when there were 257 hospitalizations, that is an approximately 27% increase.
The increase is even more stark when looking at just a month prior when total COVID-19 hospitalizations were only at 98. Since then, hospitalizations have increased by about 234%.
Looking at cases in general, Hidalgo County reported a total of 422 new cases on Tuesday of which 89 are confirmed and 333 are probable.
Hidalgo County has now reported a total of 63,102 confirmed cases, 33,922 probable and 2,268 suspected since the beginning of the pandemic.
There are currently 2,994 active cases.
Cameron County health officials reported 146 new cases for a total of 44,963 cases in Cameron County.
There were 13 new confirmed cases and five probable cases in Starr County while there were 16 new confirmed cases and four new probable cases in Willacy County, according to DSHS data.
On Tuesday afternoon, Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez and McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos spoke publicly about the disaster declarations they each signed in hopes of obtaining more resources to address the increase of migrants seeking asylum and the rise of COVID-19 cases.
However, Villalobos clarified that the rise of cases among the general public was not caused by those asylum seekers.
“The increase in the general population, we cannot attribute to the immigrants,” Villalobos said.
“Now the actual rate within the immigrants that’s totally different,” he said referring to the rise in the COVID positivity rate among the asylum seekers which changed from 8% to 16% in the last week.
“So it’s not getting better, it’s getting worse,” Cortez said. “Hopefully, this disaster order that the mayor signed and that I signed will continue to let Washington know the problems that we’re having and then prepare us, hopefully, to deal with that overflow.”
